Fighting Elephants

From left, today's group of two – Barry
and Jerry.

''Le Monde est Fou Fou Fou!''

Paris:– Thursday, 16. September
2004:– The theme of today's weather was being
pretty cool this morning, as if it were late September, and
then it struggled to get warm even though the sun was
shining most of the time. To help it along the wind stayed
idle.

Alas, i don't think it went much above 20 degrees
although it felt warmer in the afternoon. For early
tomorrow the low has been forecast by tonight's
TV–weather news as being 9 degrees, with the high
being up about 22 degrees.

Northwestern France will be veiled by high, thin clouds
that should not quite reach the Paris region, more or less.
All the sky to the east of the slightly cloudy northwest
should be very blue which means it should be very
sunny.

According to the TV–weather map there is a high
off to the northwest and a low way off in the southeast,
and we are between them in a green and pleasant place. It
might even be true.

For Saturday expect the same cloudy skies in the
northwest, along with some winds scooting up the Channel.
All the rest of France should be sunny, and around here,
with a high of 22 degrees.

Sunday is not foreseen as being so clement, with a wide
band of cloudy times stretching from the southwest to the
northeast, covering the Ile–de–France. For all
this, the temperature is supposed to hold steady at 22, as
if the thermometre will be stuck.

This Week's Club
Report of the Week

Even though there is an announcement of some foreign
object on the Métro tracks up around Barbés
the line 4 train arrives promptly at the Raspail station
and blasts out of the station to hurtle towards Vavin with
nary a hesitation.

There is a brief pause at Saint–Placide and then
the train races through the tunnel to Saint–Sulpice,
Saint–Germain and I leave it at Odéon. I've
gotten bored with riding it all the way to Châtelet,
and I'm giving it a rest.

After Buci the Rue Dauphine's sidewalks are as narrow as
they always are. There's hardly room for two people to
walk abreast, and walking against oncoming pedestrians is a
dodge'em business. If anybody stops to gaze in a window,
then everybody else has to step into the street to get
by.

All this ends at the Pont Neuf's wide sidewalks, with
the half–circle stone bays for lounging. The bridge's
sidewalks are paved with old stone blocks and as I cross I
imagine that I am adding my bit to make them
smoother.

For his first club meeting, Jerry Stopher
becomes a member at last.

The green man lights up and I cross in front of four
lanes full of cars, trucks, buses, taxis and scooters and
turn left on the other side, giving the posters a scan and
a pass. The cafés along the Quai du Louvre are
fairly occupied like the club's café La Corona and
there are nine civilians in two sets in the club's area of
the 'grande salle' when I arrive.

After a couple of minutes, Barry Wright walks up, sits
down and orders a beer. The 'Waiter of the Week' brings it
rapidly, it as if Barry might change his mind. It is a
great big beer too. It must be warmer out than I think.

Barry wonders if we should recruit the civilians into
the club. They look like they might all be speaking
Japanese and Tomoko isn't here yet. Barry drinks some of
his beer instead.

Jerry Stopher wanders in and finds us, because we don't
look like civilians. This is Jerry's first time at the
club, although he contributed a letter to Metropole in the
20. December 1999 issue, and comes to France often. Like
other would–be members, 'but not often on Thursdays,'
he says.

Jerry's bowl of five–buck
café.

Jerry lives in Beaumont, Texas, but he says he wants to
put down his birthplace, Thibodaux, Louisiana, too. This is
great – it's only 15:10 and we have a wonderful 'City
of the Week.' One with a rich and colorful history
associated with the 'grand derangement,' caused by Louis
Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm de Saint–Véran,
who lost his life and Québec to General Wolfe in
1759.

As Jerry puts it, he grew up on Goode Street between the
school and the bayou. It must have been something to
remember because Jerry has very little to say about
Beaumont, and he's been there since he was seven.

When Jerry shows us his digital camera, to explain the
batteries he got for it on the Champs–Elysées,
Barry shows us a gift he's gotten for another club member
he knows really well. It is some new kind of Walkman, and
it looks really slick.

"You don't want a digital camera, do you?" Jerry
asks.

He says the older memory cards are getting difficult to
find. After a moment's reflection he says, "I can't help
making a reference to 5¢ coffee."

This is in a reference to all the café that
nearly costs $5 around here. Barry says, "You're paying to
rent the seat."

Jerry served in the US Air Force and was stationed in France
in the early '60s in Evreux. He's going back for a weekend
for 'Les
Ailes d'Evreux.' This year this event marks the 60th
anniversary of the landings in Normandy and the 70th
birthday of the French Air Force.

When Barry isn't at
club meetings he reads old history.Continued on page 2...